RELIGIOUS TENETS OF MOUNTAIN TRIBES. 8^9 



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permanent basis, word was forwarded to hit benefactor, Fitzpatrick, inform- 

 me iiim of the circumstance. , , . u 



Friday, for Uiis was tlie name by which the Indian youth had now be- 

 come blown, on hearing the proposal of his relatives, steadily refused com- 

 pliance, declaring the whites to be his only relatives, and that with them iie 

 would live and die. j- ^^ 



Subsequently, however, he was persuaded to accompany his guardian to 

 the mountains, expecting shortly to revisit the States. Here his father and 

 mother came forward to claim him as their long-lost son. • 



But the lapse of seven years had served to efface all the recollections ot 

 early childhood. Parents and friends were alike strangers to hira ; he re- 

 fused to own them, and recoiled from their advances. Their language 

 ffrated upon his ear in a confused jargon of unlmown sounds. His mother 

 wept from mingled emotions of grief and joy, while his father and brothers 

 pressed then- mouths in unfeigned astonishment. Still his obstinacy was 

 unyielding, and the united entreaties of relatives failed to exert upon hira 



At lentrth. the arguments and advice of the fur traders induced him to 

 visit the Arapahos village, where he was received with distinguished honor 

 by his relatives and nation. Every one hastened to pay him respect,-- 

 while feast succeeded feast, and council succeeded council, to welcome his 

 return, and the little boy, who, seven years before— lost amid the dieerless 

 sands of the American Desert, and weakened by hunger and sui^rmg— • 

 had lain down to die upon the bank of the Cimarone, now tound himself 

 suddenly made famous as the " Little Chief" of his tribe,— the « Arapaho 

 American." , , 



Honor, whose potent spell exerts its influence upon older heads ai^ 

 more enlightened minds, gradually reconciled him to the rude mode of hfe 

 his destiny seemed to mark out, and he again became identified with the 

 associations of former years. ,. v,- i 



Still, however, he retains an undiminished attachment to the whites, and 

 continues to merit and' command their esteem. His character, for honesty, 

 integrity, and sobriety, has as yet stood unimpeached. A chief by birth, 

 he might assert a more prominent station among his people ; but he declmes 

 it, with the noble resolve :— " Until by my own achievements I have earned 

 that honor, I shall never consent to become a chief; for certainly, then mv 

 people will listen to me !" • u • r • j • 



The hero of the above sketch is now on his way to visit his fnends m 

 Sl Louis for the second time, and is at present my only travelling com- 

 panion. As such I find him agreeable and interesting. I am indebted to 

 him for much valuable information relative to the habits and peculiarities 

 of his own and various other Indian tribes, while his vast fund of ready 

 anecdotes and amusing stories serves to beguile the weariness of camp 

 hours. 



The religious peculiarities of the mountain tribes furnished us a thenat 

 for frequent conversation, inasmuch as their sentiments with re^jd to a 

 future existence are strangely interesting in detail. Most of them are 

 firm believers m the unmortality of the soul, as well as the conditkn of 

 nwaros and poaithments after death— though lonc acorodit tin Uiirioe 



